Poetry
მთვარე
Not translated into English
Alexander Orbeliani · 1832
Synopsis
An allegorical poem: the star of the night watches over Georgia and keeps the memory of the abolished kingdom, whose kings have been deposed and whose language has been driven out of the administration. The detail of the poem is not known outside Georgia: what is remembered is the allegory, the date of 1832 and the place it holds in its author's work, alongside a second patriotic poem.
Context
The poem appeared in the very year the plot was discovered. The moon is taken in it as a witness of a country that no longer has a state: the kingdom had been abolished by Russia in 1801, its kings deposed and Russian imposed in the administration. The failure of 1832 and the leniency of the sentences led the conspirators to regard the independent past as lost and to turn their regrets into romantic poetry. Together with a later patriotic poem, it is the author's most successful text. There is no French translation.
Who it is for
A short text in Georgian, never translated; it belongs to a period of very small written output, when the little that was printed carried the value of a sign.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as one of the two most accomplished plays by its author; nothing is documented about its reception.